Malaysians Help Boost Indian Tourism

By M. Santhiran NEW DELHI, Sept 10 (Bernama) -- Malaysians were among the people from 15 countries who contributed the most to the growth of tourist arrivals in India between January and August this year, according to the India's Ministry of Tourism. India registered a growth of 4.5 per cent in tourist arrivals and earned nearly US$13 billion (about RM56 billion) in foreign exchange via tourism during that period, it said in a statement. Malaysians represented 3.54 per cent of the total 5.06 million tourist arrivals, the ministry said. It also said that Bangladesh topped the list of tourist arrivals with 15.79 per cent, followed by the United States (12.52 per cent), the United Kingdom (9.71 per cent) and Sri Lanka (7.25 per cent). For the month of August this year, tourist arrivals saw a growth of 2.3 per cent to 589,000 compared to 576,000 arrivals in August last year. Up to 27.81 per cent of the tourists flew to India through New Delhi, 17.34 per cent, through Mumbai and 10.66 per cent, through Chennai. --BERNAMA